So, I've got a MBW II 1TB and I've got Optware running successfully and was wondering where we currently are with Transmission development?

I attempted before (in vain) to set it up with Clutch and the whole host of dependencies previously, but could never get it working properly so removed it all.

So, if I'm correct from my reading now … with Transmission 1.32/1.33 which is currently on Optware I can just do a ipkg install Transmission > ldconfig and I'm good to go as there are far fewer dependencies/problems?

Yes,
If you install transmission using optware it will install the binaries.
You will have to take care of automatic startup yourself, which is not that difficult.
I'll help if that's necessary.
You can first install things by just executing transmission-daemon on the prompt.

Then you connect to it using your webinterface on port 9091.
You should get a "clutch-like" interface….